(Reuters) - Tesla Motors Inc may repay its U.S. Department of Energy loan as early as Wednesday, Chief Executive Elon Musk said in a message on Twitter on Monday.

Musk, a billionaire who owns 27.5 percent of Tesla, added that the company would move another announcement about its charging station network to next week.

"Given govt loan repayment this week (prob Wed), Supercharger update will be next week," Musk said in his post.

A Tesla spokeswoman confirmed that Musk was referring to the full repayment of the DOE loan. Last week, Tesla said it would use $452.4 million from a bond and stock offering to repay the balance of the loan with interest.

The loan was extended to Tesla in June 2009 to cover the cost of engineering and building the Model S electric car, which starts at $70,000 before a federal tax credit.

The Model S recently received a near-perfect score from Consumer Reports magazine, part of a series of upbeat news for the 10-year-old company.